Websites:

Biography:

I did a Ph.D. in the Theory of Condensed Matter Group in the Cavendish Laboratory. I worked with the group of Richard Needs and Mike Towler using the Quantum Monte Carlo computer code CASINO on a project about BEC-BCS crossover in ultra-cold atomic systems. In the final two years of my Ph.D. I began collaborating with Chris Pickard where I modified his AIRSS method to be suitable to discover point defects in semiconductors. Throughout this project I used the planewave DFT code CASTEP. I then spent three years as a research associate with Prof. Chris Pickard's group in the Condensed Matter and Materials group of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at University College London, before returning to Cambridge as a Winton Fellow.

Research groups

Research Interests

My current interest is in applying the AIRSS method to a range of different materials science problems, focussing mainly on lithium-ion batteries. "Trial and error" plays a large part in the discovery of new materials. From the initial idea, the material must be synthesised and categorised before it can tested which is slow, difficult and expensive. High-throughput computation accelerates this process by suggesting then screening new materials, allowing us to ask "what if?" without the time and expense of manufacturing and categorizing samples. I model Li-ion batteries at the atomic level and try to uncover new materials to increase their capacity.

I use global search techniques such as ab initio random structure searching (AIRSS) to predict the ground-state structure of materials. From the ground state we use theoretical spectroscopy techniques to compare our results to experiment. As a junior developer of the electronic structure code CASTEP I develop tools for optics, electron-energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) and core-loss analysis through the OptaDOS code. I use and modify CASTEP-NMR to calculate the chemical shielding of battery materials in collaboration with experimentalists.

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